iPhone 5 VS. Galaxy S IV: Which Smartphone Has The Better Display?

One of the major smartphone releases as of late is none other than Samsung's flagship device, the new Galaxy S IV. With its release, it can't be helped when people start to compare and contrast. So there is an ongoing debate which smartphone has the better display, is it the Galaxy S IV or the iPhone 5? Dr. Raymond M. Soneira from DisplayMate has offered his own scientific conclusion on which handset has the superior display.

First of course, we need to understand the competitor's tale of the tape. The Galaxy S IV has a large 5-inch display with 442ppi and can support 1920×1080 resolution. On the other hand, the iPhone 5 sports a 4-inch display with a pixel density of 326ppi, capable of 1136×640 pixel resolution. Aside from the obvious difference between the two, it is important to know the type of screens these two smartphones are using. The iPhone 5 use LCD screens, while the Galaxy S IV utilizes OLED screens which is referred to by Samsung as Super AMOLED. In its current state, OLED screens are less accurate than LCD screens because the technology is still quite young.

After an extensive amount of testing, Dr. Raymond M. Soneira has arrived to this conclusion:

The iPhone 5 is now more than half way through its product cycle, which is important to keep in mind for our comparison. However, high-end LCDs like the iPhone 5 are a very mature and refined display technology, so other than screen size, resolution, and the Pixels Per Inch not much is likely to change in the next generation, no matter what Apple decides to do. The iPhone 5 is significantly brighter than the Galaxy S4, particularly for screens with mostly peak white backgrounds. Its color calibration is a bit better, although the Galaxy S4 has a more accurate White. The Galaxy S4 has a much bigger screen, higher resolution, higher PPI, much darker blacks, and better screen uniformity than the iPhone 5. They each have their own particular strengths and weaknesses, but if you scan our color coordinated Comparison Table, both displays are quite good and comparable overall – so it’s currently a tie – we’ll see how they both evolve and improve in the next generation…

So the tests point out that the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S IV's displays are evenly matched. The iPhone 5 uses a very refined and mature technology with LCD. It is basically on its peak and will likely not change with the next generation iPhone once Apple decides to use LCD again. OLED technology however, has still a massive room for improvement. There is a "rapid and impressive improvement in OLED displays and technology".

So there you have it folks! Both the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S IV have excellent displays. For our naked eyes, both screens look good and we can't likely tell which one is superior. It will still come down to our personal preferences. [via iJailbreak]